Improving learning through effective study skills and revision

Jon Curtis-BrignellAssistant Head: Teaching and Learning

This session

1.Some practical advice about revision– the basics.

2.Some ideas from research about how to revise more productively – the science.

There is no great secret to revising...

It is a question of being preparedbefore you start

andusing your time properly

•No clutter•No computer•No Phone•No TV

GET RID OF TEMPTATION…

Be Prepared…And Get Organised…

Have your textbooks and notes with you, in an ordered way so that you can find anything you need quickly.

CREATE A REVISION TIMETABLE

…AND STICK TO IT!

Revision: basics

• You must understand the learned material. • You cannot easily learn or remember something you

don’t understand.

understanding = knowing the parts and how they are

related; being able to explain a topic to another person; being

able to relate new ideas to older ones.

Revision: basics

• You must be unstressed for your memory to function and for you to be able to revise effectively.

• By:– Not leaving it to the last minute.– Understanding of the material before you overlearn it.– Having sequenced/ordered notes.– Having a quiet place in which to work.– Rehearsing the assessment context as well as the content

• Knowing the format of the exam• Visualising the exam

Revision: basics

• You must be adequately rested.• People in their late teens need 8.5 – 9 hours sleep a

night.• Less = sleep deprived.• Most teenagers in Britain are chronically sleep-

deprived.

– “sleep deprivation produces impairments in cognitive and

motor performance equivalent to legally prescribed levels of

alcohol intoxication.” (Williamson, 2000):

Revision: The Science…

https://www.wku.edu/senate/documents/improving_student_learning_dunlosky_2013.pdf

Revision: The Science…

Revision techniques: High, moderate or low impact?

• Elaborative interrogation - being able to explain a point or fact• Self-explanation - how a problem was solved• Summarising - writing summaries of texts• Highlighting/underlining• Keyword mnemonics - choosing a word to associate with

information• Imagery - forming mental pictures while reading or listening• Re-reading• Practice testing - Self-testing to check knowledge - especially using

flash cards• Distributed practice -spreading out study over time• Interleaved practice -switching between different kinds of problems

Revision techniques: High, moderate or low impact?

• Elaborative interrogation - being able to explain a point or fact - MODERATE

• Self-explanation - how a problem was solved -MODERATE

• Summarising - writing summaries of texts -LOW

• Highlighting/underlining- LOW

• Keyword mnemonics - choosing a word to associate with information - LOW

• Imagery - forming mental pictures while reading or listening - LOW

• Re-reading - LOW

• Practice testing - Self-testing to check knowledge - especially using flash cards - HIGH

• Distributed practice -spreading out study over time - HIGH

• Interleaved practice -switching between different kinds of problems - MODERATE

Ways of revising

• There are many ways of revising for effective retention.

• But you must revise actively• by choosing effective ways of representing the

information you need to remember• Here are some…

Not very effective

Highlighting

Re-reading

Summarising Texts

Why?

• Low challenge.

• Little thinking required.

• Makes the student think that they are ‘doing something’

More effective

Ways of revising: file cards

• boiling the course down• broad themes become visible and

detail becomes manageable• You can achieve this by following

the steps below.– Summarise your notes.– Pull out the main points, using

headings and key points.– Reduce to A4 paper or even a small

file card.– Keep in bum pocket of jeans and

look at constantly

Or: learning posters, post-its• You may find that, rather than reducing notes to small

summary cards, posters or post-its are good.• Use pattern, colour, diagrams and drawings.• Leave them up, look at them – i.e. on the loo!

Or: reducing notes

Or: Mind Maps

Or: mnemonic devices

• Some you may know: AFIAK, ROFL

• Medical: (look at your notes) FLGD, SNEFG, FLKBLATP

• Or…any you devise.• Some less good…→

Or: memorable visual representations• Memorable

visual representations are particularly likely to stick…

Most effective

1. Retrieval Practice

This technique is pretty straightforward – keep testing yourself (or each other) on what you have got to learn. Some ways in which you can do this easily:•Create some flashcards (as before), with questions on one side and answers on the other – and keep testing yourself.•Work through past exam papers – many can be acquired through exam board websites.•Simply quiz each other (or yourself) on key bits of information.•Create ‘fill the gap’ exercises for you and a friend to complete.•Create multiple choice quizzes for friends to complete.

2. Distributed practice

• Revise small topics repeatedly but in short blasts.• Space them out – leave time between sessions• Chunk it!

Ebbinghaus’s Curve

Aside: your mental engineeringYou learn by making new connections between the 86 billion neurons in your brain.● Imagine treading down paths in

a wheat field.● Unless revisited, the wheat

springs up and the path disappears.

Once formed, the physical connections myelinise. They become electrically insulatedSo thought impulses speed up

So, overlearning enables recall that is fast

3. Interleaved practice

• Spaced repetition is how everyone learns everything.• Learning must be consolidated.• This is why a revision timetable must be drawn up with

repeated exposure to the stuff you need to learn.• You need to overlearn

material until it’s in your long-term memory.

Interleaved Practice

When you are revising a subject, the temptation is to do it in ‘blocks’ of topics. Like below:

The problem with this is, is that it doesn’t support the importance of repetition – which is so important to learning. So rather than revising in ‘topic blocks’ it’s better to chunk these topics up in your revision programme and interleave them:

This means that you keep coming back to the topics. So, instead of doing a two hour block of revision on topic 1, do 25 minutes on topic 1, then 25 minutes on topic 2, then the same for topic 3 and 4.

The Pomodoro TechniqueThere are five basic steps to implementing the technique:•Decide on the task to be done•Set a timer for 25 minutes•Work on the task until the timer rings•Take a short break (5-10 minutes)•Repeat. After four pomodori, take a longer break (30-60 minutes)

And: web tools

• You may find that using the net to collaborate on making revision materials works for you or your peer group. All the sites below are free (in their basic form). Try:– www.stixy.com – an online bulletin board– www.mindmeister.com – an online mindmapping tool– www.tumblr.com – a blogging tool– www.weebly.com – a website creation tool– www.wallwisher.com – an online post-it tool– www.wordle.net – an online vocabulary poster tool– www.popplet.com – makes mindmaps

So: revising the what and the how

• Revision MUST be ACTIVE– Reviewing– Testing– Mastering an outline of– Changing the format of– (Re)presenting the material in a different way– Doing past exam questions

• NOT just rereading

Summary

• “Memory is the residue of thought”.• Start early• Space it out (spaced repetition /

interleaving)• Test yourself – be active, not passive!• Tomatoes!